April 9, 1903. 



The Weekly Florists' Review. 



833 



Bouquet of New Decorative Dahlia Mrs, Roosevelt. Grown by "W. P. Peacock, Atco, N.J. 



entirely free from it. What is the 

 trouble ? 



The plants have had practically no 

 syringing and when «e were unable to 

 ventilate in the day we always had air 

 on at night except during a very cold 

 spell. The plants have n'ot been fed 

 so far. The soil is rather sandy, from 

 rotten sods with one-fifth of manure. 



DoRN. 



The samples you sent are badly af- 

 fected with bacteria and this may have 

 been brought about by one of many 

 causes. We usually attribute it to a 

 weakened constitution, either from over 

 propagating or improper culture. Some- 

 times overwatering, and at other times 

 overfeeding. Your plants were not over- 

 fed according to your letter unless you 

 mixed some bad manure or too much 

 bone into the soil. This disease is not 

 contagious and it only spreads as each 

 plant takes it on its own accord through 

 improper culture and as your own plants 

 are affected as well as those you bought 

 I would say that you should not blame 

 the party who sold you those plants. 

 Some varieties are more prone to this 

 disease than others and you may have 

 bought just such varieties which caused 

 it to appear on them first. Flora Hill 

 invariably shows traces of it during mid- 

 \\'inter, but by growing slowly and with- 

 holding all food, and watering spar- 

 ingly we keep it in good shape until 

 brighter weather comes when it braces up 

 and goes ahead producing heavy crops cf 

 fine blooms. 



Was your soil in good condition? Had 

 it been prepared long enough before you 

 used it? Carnations do not like a rough 

 soil, so all the sods should be well rotted 

 before using. Did you plant early enough 

 so the plants could become well estab- 

 lished in their winter quarters before the 

 dark winter weather came on? The 

 water you are using may also be the 

 cause and you should have a cliemist 

 analyze some of it as I notice in your 

 letter that your other plants are also 

 acting in much the same way. 



A. F. J. Baub. 



GERANIUMS. 



What may be the trouble with our 

 geraniums? When they are potted a 

 couple of months the roots die off. We 

 had the same experience last year, and 

 as we thought the water might be at 

 the bottom of the trouble, we used ex- 

 clusively surface water instead of ar- 

 tesian well water, but the trouble re- 

 mains the same. We always use new 

 soil with one-fifth of rotted manure, or 

 a sprinkle of bone meal when we 

 haven't got the manure. Mac. 



By surface water I suppose Mac re- 

 fers to rain water or perhaps water 

 from a lake or stream. As to that I 

 don't think there is much difference, 

 and it would not account for the trouble. 

 The soil also, as mixed, is all right. 

 Geraniums like bone meal, but I don't 

 believe in using it too strong with our 

 bedding geraniums, as it causes a rank 



growth, and wlien bedded out they miss 

 it and don't keep on growing. 



But that's not to the point; gerani- 

 ums that were shifted, say from a 2i 

 or 3-inch into a 4-ineh on April 1st 

 would by June 1st be pretty well pot- 

 bound, and if subjected to a pretty se- 

 vere drying out in May, which is often 

 the case in busy times, would gradu- 

 ally lose their roots, and this could be 

 overcome by plunging the pots on the 

 bench, even if it be only half their depth, 

 in some dry, well rotted manure, or, 

 best of all, refuse hops. 



A batch of geraniums in the month of 

 May under unshaded glass, plunged into 

 refuse hops, will in two weeks so out- 

 strip those not plunged, in size, color 

 and robustness, that the difference is re- 

 markable. Earlier in the season I can 

 not think of any cause to rot the roots, 

 unless they were kept ridiculously wet. 

 I believe geraniums rather like to get 

 on the decidedly dry side, and then en- 

 joy a good soaking. 



William Scott. 



THOUSAND LEGGED WORMS. 



J. F. A. writes: "Please tell me 

 through the Review how to get rid of 

 the thousand legged worms (millipedes) 

 on my ferns ? They also dig out and eat 

 some of my asparagus seed." 



I am not up on worms. Snakes are 

 my specialty, and never heard this little 

 creeping thing called "millipede," but 

 have heard of plenty of centipedes, 

 which of course signifies one-hundred 

 feet. A species of the latter is often 

 found in a bunch of bananas when just 

 arrived from Jamaica, and that kind I'a 

 dangerous to make a pet of, but whether 

 the North American variety has one- 

 hundred, or one-thousand, or three hun- 

 dred and sixty-five understandings is 

 of no consequence except to a naturalist. 

 We all know what they are and 1 have 

 never noticed tliat they do any harm. 

 We have seen thousands of them on the 

 surface of rose beds, and after putting 

 bunches of tobacco stems on the surface 

 to keep down greenfly we noticed that 

 the "thousand legs" lay around dead. 

 And we could attribute this awful 

 slaughter of these miniature crusta- 

 ceans to nothing but the tobacco. They 

 reminded me of Byron's immortal lines: 



"For the Angel of Death- spread his wings In 



the blast. 

 And breathed In the face of the foe as he 



passed; 

 And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly 



and chill. 

 And their hearts but once heaved and forever 



grew still." 



It was something stronger than to- 

 bacco that destroyed Sennacherib's war- 

 riors, but tobacco will rid you of the 

 "thousand legs." Put plenty of fresh 

 stems among the pots. 



William Scott. 



ASTERS. 



Subscriber sends me a few dozen aslcr 

 seedlings, some with the character 

 leaves showing and some with the seed 

 leaf only developed. He says "Some, as 

 you see, the leaves became lifeless, and 

 some the roots clean rotted off." He 

 has had the same trouble in sterilized 

 soil as in unsterilized. 



The little seedlings were pretty well 

 dried up after their journey from the 

 Hoosier state. Still I think "the trouble 

 is only what we call a case of "damping 

 off." All thickly sown seedlings are 

 subject to this, and particularly asters. 

 It is such a common fault to sow too 



